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Easter Oratorio, BWV249

Introduction

It has often puzzled me why the Easter Oratorio BWV249 is sometimes considered the ugly (or at least forgotten) duckling among Bach’s choral works. That is certainly not how Bach himself saw it. Agreed, its origins were not especially propitious. In 1725 he hastily reworked a pastoral dramma per musica, recently composed for the Weissenfels court, into a cantata for Easter Sunday, its two shepherds (Menalcas and Damoetas) and two shepherdesses (Doris and Sylvia) transformed, not wholly con vincingly, into Christ’s disciples, racing each other to the empty tomb on Easter morn. Uniquely, he provided no chorales. He returned to this Easter cantata around 1738, expanding and rescoring it. What emerged was the Easter Oratorio, which was then subjected to further revision between 1743 and 1746, with the opening duet burgeoning into a four-part chorus.

By now the earlier identification of the four vocal parts with the roles of the two Marys, Peter and John had been virtually expunged. Bach’s intent here was manifestly to eliminate the theatrical flavour of the cruder cantata version and to give a more consistently meditative emphasis to the paraphrased scriptural narrative, in which the expression of human emotional responses to the Resurrection is para mount. By the time he had revised it for the last time—on 6 April 1749, just three days after his final restoration of the St John Passion—this was now a much more polished creation, worthy to set beside the Ascension Oratorio, BWV11.

The first three movements of the Easter Oratorio are all in triple time (unique in Bach’s oeuvre), laid out like a concerto of the period: a festive sinfonia scored for trumpets, drums, oboes, bassoon and strings, a superbly crafted adagio for oboe (or flute) and strings redolent of a Venetian slow movement, and then a lively da capo chorus. What follows is a sequence of recitative and aria pairings constructed rather like a dance suite: a slow minuet (No 5) for soprano with flute obbligato suggestive of the agency of the Holy Spirit and the consolation of prayer floating heavenward, a pastoral bourrée (No 7) for tenor and a pair of recorders (a reminder of the Actus tragicus), a sprightly gavotte (No 9) for the alto with an oboe d’amore colouring the string band (and a hesitant, melting end to the B section, almost a blueprint of a Mozartian tragedienne’s grief) and a gigue as a final chorus of thanksgiving (No 11) involving the expanded orchestra and including a brief cameo appearance for the lion of Judah.

‘This disc deserves to go to the top of the charts’ (Early Music Review)‘Fine performances from the Brandenburg Consort, excellent documentation. A good CD to start a Baroque collection’ (Classic CD)» More

Details

Bach wrote three oratorios—for Christmas, Easter and Ascension. The Easter Oratorio was first conceived as a cantata in 1725 and then revised as an oratorio during the following decade. This festive Sinfonia is scored for three trumpets and drums, two oboes and bassoon (the latter with unusually prominent passagework) and strings. In its original secular form it must surely have enlivened the birthday celebrations of the dedicatee, Duke Christian von Sachsen-Weissenfels, and it only serves to demonstrate Bach’s practicality as a composer that he could re-use the same music to set a sacred text as part of his varied duties as Cantor of St Thomas’s Church in Leipzig.

O men so cold of heart! Where is that love which you owe the Saviour? A weak woman must put you to shame! Ah, our sad grieving and anxious sorrow intended to annoint Him here with salty tears and melancholy yearning, but it was for you, like us, in vain.

Here is the tomb and here the stone which covered it. But where might my Saviour be? He has risen from the dead! We met with an angel, who made this known to us. I see now with joy the shroud lying here unwound.

May laud and thanks remain, O Lord, Thy song of praise. Hell and the devil are vanquished, their gates are destroyed. Rejoice, ye ransomed voices, that ye be heard in heaven. Spread open, ye heavens, your glorious arches, the Lion of Judah shall enter in triumph!